Posted Fri May 11, 2007 3:43 pm
and updated April 2008
Welcome to the board. What an awesome thread this should be. I look forward to hearing many replies on this one. :)
One thing is certain, you cannot take God out of My Father's World. At its very core, MFW is a curriculum that is all about training the hearts and minds, to help Raise Up Generations of Godly Families who see the world through God’s eyes and have God’s heart for the nations.. That’s not just a cute little slogan --- it is the essence of MFW as a company and as a curriculum.
With that said, it does take the work of the Holy Spirit to accomplish it.
I’m going to give 2 posts on this. This first one is the overview of the Bible lessons in MFW and how it is all integrated. And then I’ll chime in on just how using MFW has impacted our family in ways that I’m still looking back and seeing God’s hand in our lives and living according to that knowledge.
The Word of God is integrated in different parts of the program from Bible readings, memory verses, and even in science lessons. It is not an after thought or devotional add on. It is the first thought.
The overall progression through the years for Bible into the overall program:
K: K: get to know the Creator and how to relate to Him. studying creation, and laying a foundation of Biblically based character in an age appropriate way. You can see a brief description of the themes for K on this link
http://www.mfwbooks.com/k_theme.htm (sample, "contents" page)
1st: 1st: age appropriate overview from Genesis to Revelation in art/phonics/composition. Memory work/character from Proverbs. They will learn all of the names of the books of the Bible this year too.
Adventures: unit study on names of Jesus (Gospel overview and analogy) and learning how science can show us about Him. So, when you study Jesus is the Living Water, you have science lessons about water. It makes a little bit more sense on this sample page with table of contents.
http://www.mfwbooks.com/pdf/advsample.pdf
Exploring Countries and Cultures: In ECC, you are studying the book of Matthew, line by line. You are using the gospel to teach many things including how Jesus walked and talked with the disciples. At the end of Matthew we read Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. So you spend the whole year learning more of who Jesus is and the good news and how He helped his disciples get ready to go. So in that sense it is integrated into the overall theme of going into the world. We’ve spent time learning many places and people around the globe and we’ve heard stories of Christians who did extraordinary things. And at younger ages, we don’t have to have them learn it all at once. Additionally, you will learn about various Godly character traits for character training with your children.
CTG: An Old Testament survey as the spine for learning world history in ancient time. In other words, in this program, the Bible is the main history ”text”
RTR: a New Testament survey while studying Roman times. includes reading through book of Luke among other things. Then the shift into middle ages in history brings in church history. (history is from time of Christ to reformation. So NT and church history) Still have your Bible lessons, but then you add in a bit more as you learn that God didn’t stop existing at the end of the New Testament. Again, you learn about many people who lived for Jesus.
EX1850: by this point, your Bible lessons can’t really be tied to history all the time. You still learn about the impact of Christianity in the picture of world history and how even today the Bible is important to help us with our own problems and trials. You continue to learn about missionaries and martyrs. The text for the entire year is the book of James --- while we learn about the problems that people faced in history, we get to see how God’s word can impact our lives when we have problems. Focus begins to take more personal application in our lives.
1850-MT: God and his people still affect history and current events. Prayer affects nations and history.. And there is a section to help your family pray for things to come so that we are not just passively watching history while it is being made. So, again, it moves to personal application.
The Bible studies in this year are really good. You use several books to cover many things. In A Young Person's Guide to Knowing God, you are given many examples of what God was doing in the little things and how everyday life shows who God is and that He is active in our lives.
Then, there is a book called Tales of Persia --- it is book of missionaries stories from the early to mid parts of the 1900's of what will now be called Iran.
And a study guide called Witnesses to all the World. I am liking that book even though it's a little hard and geared up a bit. Easy to use for family discussions. And it is tying in so perfectly with what my church is studying. Amazing to watch God do all of this.
We also have lots of prayer focus points in year 5. On her own, my 9 y.o daughter developed a heart to pray for the Muslims in western China. That's not in the curriculum itself, but praying for people groups is. God is so good!!!
And of course the read alouds in the deluxe package are part of Bible time too (they integrate over several subjects).
High School: Well, all I know is that year 1 of high school is to help with worldview and such. You read the entire Old Testament as the spine for world history. (in CTG, you read a lot of the OT). Books from ancient times are studied from a Christian perspective. So you aren’t learning Homer to follow Homer, but rather to see how people in history have always needed to have purpose in their lives, and that whole spiritual meaning of life thing. You know that kind of “why should study this stuff?” thing that we all went through as teenagers.
But ---- the best way for answers on high school is to call MFW office. I’m just not in that part of the program
God’s word is very much part of MFW. It is not a tag on subject. I’ll chime back in with some personal impact of how using MFW for 4 years has drawn my family closer to the Lord and finding “out of the box” ways to serve as senders.
MFW has a homeschool convention workshop that is called Integrating God's Word and Character Building through Your Curriculum. You might want to listen to it. Here's a link to a recording of it. You can order a CD or MP3 download to hear it
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?t=3234
looking forward to hearing those personal stories.....
--crystal